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Monday, January 9, 2012

Ivory Soap Explosion & Exploration

Awhile back my daughter's preschool teacher made "clean mud" with the class and while talking about it she mentioned to me that I should put Ivory soap in the microwave & see what happens! She did not mention what actually happens but I kept the tidbit in my mind hoping to test it out at a later date.

Mad Science Week brought the idea to the forefront of my mind & I figured it was a great time to try it and see what happens. I am so glad I did! The ivory soap produced quite an unexpected & amazing reaction!

Ivory Soap Explosion & Exploration

What You Need:

bar of Ivory soap

microwave

towel or plate

What To Do:

1. cut the bar in half -

you DO NOT want to put the entire thing in the microwave at once

unless you want a huge mess in there! :)

2. cut the halves into half -

now you have 4 quarters of the soap.

3. Put 1/4 piece of soap bar into microwave & heat for 1-2 mins.

Note: I put it on a paper plate to minimize the mess/clean-up.

4. WATCH what happens!

The reaction happens quickly so watch it & stop when appropriate.

I think it took about a minute, definitely less than two.

Pretty AWESOME!

Of course we repeated the above with all 4 pieces.

Then, after we watched the reaction of the ivory soap when heated

we had to explore it through smell, touch & play!

It was dry and soft & the girls said it felt like tissue paper

(I think that was a good description of it)

After playing with it for a few minutes,

they wanted to add water to see if they could make snowballs.

Being this was all about experimenting -

I obliged and gave them a cup of water to pour in as they wanted.

They added a little to see what happens

& they were able to form a "snowball-ish" type ball.

The more water they added, the more the initial foam "melted".

It was quite messy but being that we were playing with soap -

does it really qualify as a mess? :)

After adding in the entire cup of water we were left with lots of suds.

My buddies and I did this, too. My soap was older and didn't quite foam up as much, but we got to do lots of other things with it after we microwaved it. Wanna see? http://www.mybuddiesandi.blogspot.com/2012/01/more-clean-fun.html

Oh I just love your educational resources! I would love for you to share your stuff on my site via my weekly homeschooling on the cheap linky: http://3boysandadog.com/deals/2012/homeschooling-on-the-cheap-january-12-2012/

Did you know if you put a light bulb in a glass of water in the microwave it will light? I learned this on Mr. Wizard as a kid. I also always stop the microwave the second it lights up! ha ha (make sure to use real glass)

Ack! I saw this on another website and tried it for my bored little ones this past week. I didn't think about cutting it into pieces! LOL You're right, it does make a mess! (But i had a really clean microwave! LOL) It's kind of like the snakes that we get on july 4th. Any idea if it works with different soap?

please be warned! let it sit for a few minutes to cool in the microwave! i did not and burned my finger BAD! my entire finger was one giant blister! i did this about a week and a half ago and its still healing. just be careful not to burn yourself!!!

I tried this with a small piece of soap (just a generic white bar soap), i put it in for only 30 seconds (on a plate). My microwave started smoking and almost caught on fire, plus the soap just melted did not foam up at all .. what went wrong?

We used to do this, as children, and also for Christmas we would construct a candle chimney, squares of parafine stacked, and then whip with an old egg beater some parafine for a snow cap on the top of the chimney. The chimney was red, and we would scroll in lines to look like bricks. It is always fun to play, and be creative.

My little guy wanted to color this, so we used food coloring with a little tiny bit of water. Looked cute. We then put the photo up on Facebook and challenged our friends to guess what it was. I asked him what we could give as a reward, and he said cookies, so we put up the challenge and offered cookies as a reward! It was really fun for him to see guesses come in. And soon we'll be sending out a box of Girl Scout cookies across states to the winner! :-)

I did not use Ivory soap and used Dial soap instead. It did not foam up. But the worse thing is that the microwave now has a very strong scent of fragrance that we cannot get rid of (we are a scent free home) no matter how hard I try (vinegar, baking soda, ...). I think there should be a BIG WARNING on the "SCENTED" effect of this experiment. Now we have to replace our microwave :(

EggMama, sorry you had such an unpleasant experience. The experiment definitely calls for Ivory Soap which is not strong smelling at all as it is unscented. We had no problems when we used that specific soap which is why we shared it with the specific brand mentioned. I don't know of other soaps that work like it.

Oh no! EggMama! That is so sad! Don't give up on your microwave! Steve Spangler (the King of Kid's Science) specifically explains why Ivory Soap is the soap to be used in this experiment. Here is why:

"Ivory soap is one of the few brands of bar soap that floats in water. But when you break the bar of soap into several pieces, there are no large pockets of air inside. If it floats in water and has no pockets of air, it must mean that the soap itself is less dense than water. Ivory soap floats because it has air pumped into it during the manufacturing process."

Give your microwave a few days. I am really surprised the vinegar didn't work. Ususally I just zap vinegar to get a smell out and it works fine.

I did this with my daughters and they too wanted to add water after playing with the clouds. We did, but before we rolled them into snowballs, I added drops of food coloring around the mixture, then we rolled them into "snowballs" and put them on wax paper to dry back out. Viola... We created our very own tie dyed Ivory soap balls. We put them in their bathroom and they loved bath time! I actually came up with that idea on my own! :) I was going to post a pic, but it wouldn't let me.

Just tried this. After 1 1/2 minutes smoke started pouring from my microwave. I stopped it and now my entire house is filled with burnt soap smelling smoke and all of our eyes and lungs are burning. We opened everything up and are sitting outside. Anyone know if this is harmful? I'm just wondering if we should seek medical attention. I feel as though the soap is coating my lungs!